


Aftershock

by templarhalo



Series: Brave New World [2]
Category: Godzilla (2014), Godzilla - All Media Types, Godzilla King of the Monsters (2019)
Genre: Gen, Grief/Mourning, Somebody hug Madison, even more angst
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-07-25
Updated: 2019-07-25
Packaged: 2020-07-08 02:33:23
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Major Character Death
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,780
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/19862068
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/templarhalo/pseuds/templarhalo
Summary: After  Major Adam William's sacrifice to  save Godzilla and by extension, the world from King Ghidorah. His beloved niece Madison Russel and colleagues visit his grave at Arlington National Ceremony.





	Aftershock

**Author's Note:**

> It is only through labor and painful effort, by grim energy and resolute courage, that we move on to better things.
> 
> Theodore Roosevelt

She doesn’t visit her Uncle Adam’s grave at Arlington until a month after his funeral and two days after she’s been officially diagnosed with PTSD.

The headstone was dark granite surronded with flowers and those stupid little American flags you see at Walmart around the fourth of July. Her Uncle’s funeral had been a fucking public event, with thousands of people gathering to watch the empty coffin be lowered into the grave and the twenty-one gun salute to honor the man who detonated a nuclar device to save Godzilla. 

The inscription on the headstone was a simple one.

**Major Adam Williams.**

**September 18th, 1980- May 31st, 2019**

**U.S. Air Force**

**Brother, Husband, Uncle and Pararescuman,**

**“That Others May Live.”**

Now its quiet, and Madison doesn’t have to act composed or be dressed nice. She’s dressed in jean’s sneakers and a hoodie. The recently promoted 1st Lieutenant Barnes is shadowing her today,while her dad and Dr. Serizawa meet with officials in the rebuilding city of D.C. 

Part of her feels guilty for not visiting sooner, but Madison mostly feels numb. That’s how she felt since the day her uncle and mother died. That and shame for waking up from nightmares of Ghidorah, having pissed the bed and screamed for a mother who if she was still alive would be in a cell for the rest of her life.

All she had ever wanted since she was nine was for her dad to come back. She had gotten her wish, but she’d lost an Uncle and her mother too. In hindsight, she had lost her mother the second her mother had reached out to Alan Jonah with her mad, stupid plan.

Madison wanted to cry, but crying never helped her. Instead she sighed and in a form of therapy as old as humanity itself, spoke to the dead.

“Hey Uncle Adam, it’s Madison. I- I’m sorry I haven’t visited you till now.” 

“I wanna say things are good, but they’re not. Things have really sucked since you died. I mean not entirely, Godzilla and the other Titans have left us alone, and the planet is getting better because of their presence, but besides that…” 

“I miss you a lot. And in spite of what mom did, I miss her a lot too. And the worst part I know if I’d done something when mom let me in her plan, you and everyone else who died would still be alive.”

"A lot of people have told me there was nothing I could have done. That I was just a kid. But that doesn't really help. I got angry when people tell me that. The shrink I saw on Monday told me things will get better. And I want to believe him. I want… I don't want to be afraid anymore. Or feel helpless anymore. I want to be happy like I know you want me to be, but everything just really sucks since you and mom died."

Madison sat down and pulled out her Uncle’s dog tags. She didn’t wear them around her neck but kept them in her pocket. 

“I miss you so much Uncle. I miss watching anime with you. I miss watching Xena and Stranger Things and The Rookie with you. I miss your jokes and your hugs and your smile. I miss sparring with you, and you helping me with homework and I miss you so fucking much.” Madison said.

"I don't know if you're listening from beyond the grave or not, but if you are, Thanks. Tell Uncle Keith and Andrew I said hi. Mom too I guess." 

Madison stood up and dusted off her jeans, feeling a little less hollow.

* * *

Colonel Diane Foster was no stranger to talking to the dead. Since she was old enough to understand what death was, her mother and father had taken her to visit the graves of family members, and instilled in her the importance of remembrance. 

Too damn many of her people were buried at Arlington, and Adam Williams wasn't the only one member of G-team she was visiting, just the last one.

She retrieved a flask of the black tea he loved so much and poured it over his grave, careful not to spill any on the headstone.

"Your niece is doing better. One of our new members, an ex D-boy by the name Marlow took a real shine to her. You'd like him, he's almost as well read you are, and you both have the same laconic wit." Foster said with a laugh.

Adam Williams may have been a quiet reserved man, but if you gave him permission to speak freely, he was blunt in his assessment of you. He either liked you and would die for you, tolerated your existence because he had to, or hated your guts. Foster had been lucky to find herself in the first category not just as a commanding officer, but as a friend. 

Foster sighed, and felt a surge of pity for her subordinate’s parents. Their son was a posthumous recipient of the Medal of Honor and would be forever remembered as a hero. But their daughter had created the circumstances that led to her own brother’s death and would be forever remembered as a woman whose misguided plans led to the death of millions. 

“I’m wish you weren’t gone so soon Williams, but you won’t be forgotten.” Foster promised. 

* * *

Mark Russel was never big on spiritual concepts, like the afterlife or God. He understand the comfort it could provide though. Which is why he had found himself in front of his former brother in law’s grave.

Mark had had a mixed relationship with his wife’s younger brother. They had gotten along well enough at first, with Adam and his husband Keith more then willing to lend a hand in playing with the kids or looking after them when the work piled up, but Mark had sought solace in the bottle, their relationship had dropped in warmth entirely. And after one too many nights at a local bar, Adam had hunted him down and beaten some sense into him.

“Get your shit together, Mark Russel, get it together for Madison’s sake if nothing else, or I’ll break more than your nose and your arm. Do you understand me?”

“Yes.” Mark had gritted out through bloodstained teeth. 

After the divorce, save for a few curt emails Mark had no contact with Adam until he had accompanied Serizawa and Graham to drag him out of Colorado. 

Adam had been calm and measured in his conversation, with Mark, but Mark knew he and Adam would have to clear the air between them when the madness Emma had started was over. 

And now Adam, was dead. He had sacrificed himself and ensured Mark had a chance to be the father, Madison deserved. 

He heard footsteps and turned to see Serizawa walking towards him.

“Come to pay your respects?” Mark asked the wisest man he knew.

“Yes I have.” The head of Monarch said softly. He pulled out a Hershey bar with Reese’s pieces in them and laid in front of the grave.

“Adam had quite a taste for them.” Serizawa explained.

Mark chuckled. Adam’s sweet tooth was the man’s only vice. But when you have two kids who wanted ice cream, he was invaluable help in pointing out the best places for it.

“You know I meant to ask him something before he… you know…” 

“You were going to ask why he did not hate Godzilla like you did.” Serizawa answered.

“Yeah.”

“I asked him the same question a month after San Francisco.” Serizawa answered.

“And what did he tell you?” Mark asked

“He quoted Marcus Aurelius “How much more grievous are the consequences of anger than the causes of it?” He grieved for his husband, accepted that he was gone, that he was an unfortunate unintentional casualty, just like his nephew Andrew and the thousands of others in San Francisco. He told me he could lash out in hate and rage, and burn himself and others alive with it, or he could harness that hate and rage to save lives and to fight for a better future for his little warrior princess.” Serizawa said with a sad smile.

Mark sighed.

“To live in hearts we leave behind is not to die.” he said aloud.

“Thomas Cambell.” Serizawa said.

“I always hated poetry.” Mark said as he wiped the tears from his eyes.

He regretted wallowing in his self hatred and bitterness instead of trying to take the time to mend things with Adam and the rest of Monarch.

“I prefer what Terry Prathcett said about death. Do you know a man is not dead when his name is still spoken?”

“Adam liked Pratchett’s stuff, but I never could get into it.”

“Not even Good Omens?” Serisawa said wryly.

Mark laughed.

“Only because Madison liked it.”

“As good a reason as any.” Serizawa said with a dry chuckle.

* * *

"Hey Uncle Adam." Madison said.

"Its hard to believe that two months have gone by since, you know..." the girl trailed off.

"I stopped wetting the bed a week ago. I'm still having nightmares about Ghidorah and Mom, but they're not as frequent."

The girl sat down. She had put a small bisexual flag on the ground. Someone has left a bouquet of White Star of Bethlehem with a note reading.

_For the man who saved my husband's life. Tech Sergeant Estaben Vega._

She noticed someone had replaced one of the little American flags with one bearing the insignia of the 103rd pararescue squadron and smiled sadly. A few people from her Uncle's old outfit had joined G-team to honor his memory.

"I still miss you a lot. But things are getting better. Dad and I, have gone to see a few movies and went fishing with Sam and Rick. Captain Griffith and Dr. Chen have started dating. They’re really cute together.”

“I have an official position in Monarch now. It's a paid internship, mostly clerical stuff for Dr. Serizawa, but it's something. It makes me feel…. Content, useful. I’m having Sergeant Major Marlow, i’ve talked about him before, spar with me. Lots of MMA stuff, lots of dirty tricks too. That way when something happens, like if that Alan Jonah guy, Mom was working with rears his head again, I won’t be useless.”

“I wish you were here. Not just because I miss you, but because Monarch is learning so much about the Titans, about the ancient civilization in the Hollow Earth. I know you’d love going over the research with everyone.”

Madison got up. 

“I love you Uncle Adam. Thanks for everything.”

  
  


**Author's Note:**

> “Live a good life. If there are gods and they are just, then they will not care how devout you have been, but will welcome you based on the virtues you have lived by. If there are gods, but unjust, then you should not want to worship them. If there are no gods, then you will be gone, but will have lived a noble life that will live on in the memories of your loved ones.”  
> ― Marcus Aurelius
> 
> Is the Marlow Madison and Colonel Foster mention related to Hank Marlow? Yes he is. Sgt Major David Marlow is Hank's youngest grandson. He's an OC of mine that I look forward to showing off to the Godzilla fandom soon.
> 
> D-boy is a slang term used affectionately by the Army Rangers in the book Blackhawk Down to refer to members of the Army counter terrorist unit Delta Force, although the unit is officially known as 1st Special Forces Operational Detachment-Delta (1st SFOD-D)
> 
> Thomas Campbell is a Scottish poet who helped found the University College London, which was the first University founded in London and the first to be entirely secular.
> 
> https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Thomas_Campbell_(poet)
> 
> Comments and kudos are much appreciated.


End file.
